You might remember last year's salsa contest, which coincided with our 5th anniversary and SysAdmin Day party. We're doing it again this year, but we're making it its own event, separate from SysAdmin Day. August 16th is the date, and we'll be celebrating it here at Spiceworks HQ.

Several SpiceHeads asked if they could enter the contest last time, so this year we've decided to open it up to anyone who wants to make the trek out here. If you live in or near Austin, or want to make the trip here, you're welcome to enter your favorite salsa into the contest. Or if you just want to show up, eat salsa, and vote on the entries, that is cool too.

If you are interested, please PM me before August 1st so that we can get a count of entrants and attendees.

So we had our Salsa Contest. We had 30+ entries! That's right, we bad! :) The entries were all very impressive: inventiveness in ingredients (olive-and-anchovies "Julia Childs 100th Birthday" salsa; "Tropical Spice"), execution ("Eastbound and Down": home-produced hickory smoked peppers!), originality (salsa Xuachapanteca: a tomatillo-based salsa verde), and presentation (watermelon Spicerex head, "Summer in The Sun", ...). I had a hard time deciding whom to vote for!

We had a DJ spinning Tejano, reggae, mariachi, etc. The music had as much kick as some of the salsas!

The big prize of a brand-new iPad, the "Crowd Favorite" prize, went to the aforementioned "Eastbound and Down" salsa, from Brendan, one of our support engineers. Surprisingly, it was the only smokey-flavored salsa in the contest. The smokiness was just right, as was the flavor and taste and consistency. Dude just nailed it! (His presentation included a slideshow of SpiceRex helping to make the salsa!)

The "Best Presentation" prize went to Justin, one of our sales guys. He presented his watermelon-based salsa fresca in a watermelon hollowed out and carved to resemble SpiceRex's head. The red salsa inside SpiceRex's mouth was a quite a sight to behold!

The "Most Culinary Creativity" prize went to yours truly! :) By popular demand (OK, only three people asked for it :) ), here's the recipe.

Strawberry Pico de Gallo

"Elevator pitch"Greeting card character floating down the Mekong River, except this river of "Apocalypse Now" fame is not in Southeast Asia, but in the Yucatan Peninsula: substitute strawberries in place of tomatoes and add fish sauce for a bit of that Colonel Kurtz eccentricity.

1 3/8" dice seems to work best; finer dice means strawberries get too mushy; larger dice makes the pico de gallo too cumbersome to put on chips!2 Taste a bit of the serrano as you chop it to gauge its spiciness.3 I use "Three Crabs" fish sauce, but I have heard lots of good things about Red Boat fish sauce and want to try that. [EDIT 2013/04/02: I have tried Red Boat fish sauce. Use it. :) P.S. It's currently cheaper at Whole Foods than at MT Supermarket!]

4 This is the same idea as dressing a salad: coating the ingredients in oil first "protects" them and prevents the salt from drawing too much fluid out from the strawberries, cucumber, etc. (and turning the salsa into a soup!).4 I also tried a version with apricots but did not like it as much.6 I also tried a version with garlic (1 clove, ground up with the salt) and black pepper (1/2 tsp!) but did not like it as much.7 I like to use chopsticks, one in each hand, to do the mixing. Chopsticks have just enough "presence" to move ingredients around without crushing them, like spoons or forks might.